Mark Zuckerberg just spent over two hours talking about a serious topic—AI strategy—but the only thing making waves online is how he drinks Guinness. He took a sip, winced a little, and then the internet went crazy. To me, the clip made it look like he just tasted beer for the first time ever. Some outlets said he looked like he was pretending to enjoy it, while others focused on his overall awkwardness (their words, not mine). As a marketer, this confirms something I’ve believed for a long time: the human element will always take center stage, even when you’d rather it didn’t.
Think about it for a second. He surely prepped for the big AI talking points. Nobody on that podcast was sweating Zuckerberg’s beer. But that’s the whole problem with moments like this. You don’t get to choose which 10 seconds the internet decides to keep. The polished, planned stuff gets ignored, and the unscripted, slightly awkward, human beat is what travels. It happens almost every time, and here’s what you need to know about it.
Authenticity can’t be performed.
You can usually tell when someone isn’t being authentic just by looking at their face or reactions. People have a radar for things that look staged and a bit forced. I firmly believe trying to fake authenticity backfires 10 out of 10 times. I’ve watched countless brands try to manufacture a human moment, get caught, and get called out. The lesson is that authenticity only works when it fits who you actually are. Pick a lane the audience will believe.
Know your believable range.
Any time I’m getting ready to post something, or a client asks me about posting something, I run a simple filter: Would my audience actually believe this is coming from me? “Everyman” isn’t believable coming from one of the richest people alive, the same way “edgy and playful” isn’t believable coming from a traditional accounting firm.
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The backlash lives in the gap between who you really are, as a person or a business, and who you’re pretending to be. The wider the gap, the harder you’ll fall. Before you jump on a trend, borrow someone’s tone, or copy something that’s working for somebody else, make sure it fits your brand and persona. Otherwise, you’re just pretending to be a brand you’re really not.
A simple example could be a LinkedIn post that doesn’t sound like you, a trend you forced by trying to do a dance you haven’t done in the last 15 years, or a Facebook ad that tried too hard to be cool.
The brand that actually won never tried.
Who’s actually winning the PR game right now? Guinness. Zuckerberg hauled a keg over from Dublin and essentially handed Diageo millions of dollars in free placement on a silver platter. They didn’t pay for it. They didn’t plan it. It just came to them. Marketers spend their careers trying to engineer a moment like this, and Guinness got it from Mark Zuckerberg for the price of a keg.